How one of the most gruesome scenes from Sunday’s 'The Walking Dead' came to life

Warning: There are massive spoilers ahead if you have not watched
the mid-season premiere of "The Walking Dead."

A lot happened on Sunday's mid-season premiere of "The Walking
Dead."

The hit AMC series brought to life one of the biggest scenes from
the popular comic series so far. While you may be reeling over
the biggest shockers of the night, you probably didn't
realize that the mid-season premiere was the first time the
makeup and visual effects crew tried out a new technique to show
off some zombie gore.

Tech Insider caught up with episode director and make-up
supervisor Greg Nicotero before the season return to find out how
some of the episode's big moments came together.

Last chance to head back before spoilers!

Gene
Page/AMC

About midway through the episode, Jessie's son Sam (Major
Dodson) gets torn apart by several walkers.

Viewers probably weren't surprised to see Sam's demise
in episode 9. He's been on edge for awhile.AMC

However, there's one zombie in
particular you should look out for in the mid-season premiere.
Look out for the walker who takes a bite into Sam's forehead.
You'll see a bunch of blood comes rushing out of the
wound.

AMC

In the past, the series has
pulled off similar effects by having actors wear blood filled
tubes or by using a prosthetic on the actor. That wasn't the case
this time.

"One of my make-up artists — Gino
Crognale — who’s played numerous walkers in the show, he
played the walker who bit Sam," Nicotero explained. "And the way
we did that gag was something we’ve never done before. We built a
set of dentures – zombie dentures that had blood tubing attached
to the teeth so we could see him bite on his forehead and blood
shot out of his forehead. And we did that by pumping blood out of
his teeth as opposed to doing a prosthetic on Major."

The series has been making custom
zombie dentures on the show
since season one. Every season it looks like the show
continues to find another way to evolve the way in
which they are used.

Greg Nicotero working on a
zombie from season one of "The Walking Dead."Scott Garfield/AMC

"I love that I’ve been doing this
for 30 years and we’re six seasons into it and we’re still coming
up with fun, cool ways to do gags," added Nicotero.

Nicotero himself has shown up in
several episodes of the series in full zombie makeup, but you
probably won't spot him in the mid-season premiere — unless you
really know where to look.